Listen to a New Bartees Strange Song, “Weights”

One of Paste’s top artists of 2020 is having a pretty good 2021, too: On the heels of a statement-making set at this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, D.C.-based rock songwriter (and in-demand producer) Bartees Strange has shared a new track, “Weights,” which will appear on the forthcoming deluxe version of his breakout debut album.

Next Friday, Oct. 1, on the one-year anniversary of his widely acclaimed 2020 standout LP Live Forever, Strange will release Live Forever Deluxe Edition, featuring reworks of two album tracks: “Flagey God” and “Kelly Rowland.” The former becomes the chilled-out “Flagey God Redux,” while the latter becomes “Free Kelly Rowland,” with a feature from buzzy hip-hop duo Armand Hammer.

Strange wrote and recorded “Weights” earlier this year with Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip, but the track would have fit in well on Live Forever. Both Strange’s vocals and the instrumental’s propulsive art-rock evoke Bloc Party, but his lyrics are more moody and pensive, looking back on a romantic connection that fell apart. “Timing’s not a friend sometimes,” he sings, his hurt and regret accentuated by synth backing fit for a Robert Smith vocal. A fleeting acoustic breakdown comes and goes in what feels like an instant, with Strange going full Kele Okereke in the track’s heart-squeezing climax.

“This is about the ones that got away,” Strange says of “Weights” in a statement. “Going back and forth in my head about relationships that could have happened, missing that it didn’t, and finally realizing I gotta let the weight of it all go.”